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A great exercising disc that provides you with a personalised workout that definitely works!

As I approached the end of my third year at University, I had started to notice that three years of alcohol and takeaways had taken their toll on my body. I hastily decided that enough was enough-I would ditch the rubbish food, reduce my intake of alcohol and start to fight the flab. Naturally, being a gaming girl, I opted for the video game alternative to gym exercise-the excellent Wii Fit and the accompanying Wii Balance Board. Wii Fit and it's predecessor, Wii Fit Plus did, combined with a balanced diet, help me shed almost 3 stone of weight over the next year or so, but after excessive use, the exercises got a little stale. Step forward my next Wii fitness purchase, NewU: Fitness First Personal Trainer.

NewU was put together by the team behind the gym and fitness equipment company, Fitness First. Automatically I felt that this would be a great help, as surely these people know what they are talking about when they are putting together exercise plans, right? Thankfully, it appears so. You begin New U by firstly entering your name, age and weight. The name will purely be used to identify your fitness profile, while the age and weight will be used to determine your exercise regime. After entering these simple details, you will then be prompted to choose two aims that you wish to achieve through exercising. Here you can choose to aim to look good (general body toning), dropping a dress size (again, another general body tone), flexibility (which involves a pilates and yoga focus), yoga, loosing weight for celebrations (a tough all-body workout), and general getting fit for sports and activities. I believe that the exercises vary, depending on if you are male or female also.After selecting all of this, you can then choose your on-screen personal trainer from a short list of a few men and women. Clicking on each one will bring up their photograph and a short bio, but in all honesty, I don't think it matters too much who you choose-they all seem to do the same. Finally, choose your location. You can choose to virtually exercise on a beach, in a field, a gym

So, you've chosen your two aims-what's next? Well everything has been set up, so now it is time to exercise. Click the workout section to access today's workout. From here you will have a 20 to 25 minute workout which focuses on the first of your goals. The second set of exercises, if you choose to select them once you have finished workout one, will then revolve around your second aim. The more you pump into your regime, the harder your exercises get, and before long you will notice that you've worked up quite a sweat. Just to warn those who are not used to exercise on a regular basis, this is much harder than Wii Fit. I found that when I first started using this, my muscles were really aching for a day or two after completing some exercises. Regular use is recommended so that your body gets used to the exercise regime, otherwise you may find yourself nursing a few aching body parts!

My two goals were looking good and yoga, as I wanted to work on all areas of my body, but then finish my exercising with a more relaxing set of yoga exercises, designed to stretch your body and gently tone. I found that the Looking Good goal allowed me to work out consistently on cardio themed exercises for about 20 minutes. Thankfully each workout begins with a few warmup exercises, so I did not find myself crippled with a stitch halfway through the set. However, as the set goes on, you will definitely feel the exercise working on your body. The Looking Good goal seemed to favour lunges, crunches, sit ups, twists and shadow boxing, which definitely helped me to work up a bit of a sweat. The Yoga set generally involves a lot of stretches, some of which test your ability to balance, which if I am being honest, has never been my strong point. Each exercise uses either the Wii Balance Board or the WiiMote to complete them, and you can easily follow along with your on-screen trainer by the use of beep noises and a bar at the top of the screen that tells you when it is your turn to complete the next action. Unfortunately at times the game will not register when you have done some exercise moves though, which rather frustratingly decreases your score. I found that this was particularly true with the WiiMote, but I felt like these exercises were benefiting my body, so I have persevered with this slight drawback.

The exercises are excellent on this, and I strongly recommend switching your goals quite a lot, especially at first as it will allow you to experience more of the exercises that the other goals incorporate.

At the end of it all though, although I do feel rather sweaty, my heart is not thumping madly. It seems like just enough exercise without going overboard, and as it is all over in a matter of 20 minutes or so (if you only stick with one workout set-40 to 45 if you do both), it can be completed quickly after work so that you can then spend the evening relaxing.

The exercise section of the disc also allows you to view your exercise regime for tomorrow, and check up on your progress. The progress statistic section really allows you to feel like you have achieved something-especially when you start to notice that hours have started to stack up in a considerable amount.

NewU has a nice addition in the form of recipes and meal plans. This section can be used to plan your healthy diet from breakfast, in-between meal snacks, lunch and dinner. The great aspect about this section is that you are able to customise which foods in each food group you enjoy eating. Therefore, the recipes and weekly menu has been fully customised to suit your food needs, rather than disappointing you with food that you would never dream of eating. As a balanced diet combined with exercise really is the most successful way to lose weight and tone up your body, this section is rather useful to those who are worried about what food they should be avoiding during their health kick.

Overall:NewU: Fitness First Personal Trainer is an enjoyable and interactive fitness game for the Wii. The ability to fully customise your exercise regime to cater for your needs means that this is a much more personal way to exercise than you would get from just watching a fitness DVD. Sometimes it will not register that you have completed certain parts of an exercise, which is frustrating as this will then lower your rating shown at the end of the exercise, but in all honesty, it is worth persevering with it, as the exercises are very beneficial. I continue to use this regularly and have noticed that my body has toned up quite significantly. It also feels like a much more hardcore workout than Wii Fit, which I love, but my body seems to have got used to the exercises so much now that it is not doing too much to benefit me anymore. For those interested in graphics, they're not overly amazing, but they're not awful either. There is a slight fuzz around the on-screen personal trainer who has clearly been put against a blue-screen background, but the graphics are not overly important here-it is the actual exercising that counts. If you want something to vary from Wii Fit from time to time, then I highly recommend giving NewU: Fitness First Personal Trainer a go.

*Also listed on my blog: http://8-bitgirl.blogspot.com/2011/06/newu-fitness-first-personal-trainer.html*Also on Ciao, under "MonsoonBaby88"

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Definately get it, it's worth every penny

I borrowed The New U: Fitness First Personal Trainer a couple of weeks ago off my sister originally to try it out as I do with many of the other fitness games to see if it was worth it first... and it was!! I've now gone out and bought this for myself. It's not expensive and really worthwile.You don't need a balance board for this, it can pick out other forms of excercise.On this you can choose your own personal trainer and choose a lifestyle goal. Once you've picked the goal you want to achieve the trainer will help you achieve this by setting out daily workouts. You can see how much calories you've burned and it gives you medals and awards for achieving different goals and for completing fifferent challenges.There are 5 challenges for you to complete, Dance, Boxing, Cardio test, Army and Football.New U will give you nutrition advice and shopping and lifestyle tips to help you towards the fitter healthier you. This has been working muscles I never usually use - I ache and I personally think that is a great thing!!! I know it's working!

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It's ok

I had a fad of buying wii fitness games and this one was one of them. In cost me £15 from Game not to bad or so I thought.

NewU is a new health and fitness game which has been developed by the people at wii and Fitness First the gym chain and also the nutritional experts who did the tv show You are what you eat have provided 130 receipes which you can tailor your dietry needs. Pretty impressive in theory. The game uses real-life video and you can set yourself a variety of goals, 50 to choose from in total. The goals are designed for both women and men. Mens include getting a six pack, sliming down and womens include getting a bikini body or dropping a dress size. Your fitness first personal trainer of which you have a choice of 4 who apparently all work for fitness first, are suppost to motivate you to workout and achieve your goals. There are 80 different exercises to work your entire body and leave you looking great. You also get to choose where you workout: the beach, in the mountains, in a forest or in the gym. If only you really were transported to your chosen destination.

When you begin you have to enter your vital statistics: height, weight, gender, age, build and also your eating habits NewU then makes you your own workout and food programme. Up to 6 people can play at any one time so you can get your friends and family involved too.

So what I thought...The game is easy enough to follow, the exercises are explained and you know how many of each exercise is left the only thing is the routines last around 10-15 minutes and you hardly break a sweat so how anyone thinks that is going to make them drop a dress size I do not know lol.

I will give 3 stars because it is easy to use and the receipes are useful I just don't think it is going to be the answer for loosing those extra pounds unless of course you keep adding extra routines which are not for that day and in that case I think the game should be designed to have longer daily routines thats just my opinion though.

Thank you for reading x

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For people who are serious about fitness

I got this game for Christmas and looking at the front cover ws not initially enthused to want to try it. It's a naff design and just made me think it was cheap rip-off of the Wii fit and Wii fit plus, both of which I already have. However I thought I would give it a go and boy have I changed my mind!!

This is a serious fitness programme.

The first thing you have to do when you load the game is create a profile. Once you have done that you have the option to choose between four different trainers who all have different specialist areas. I chose the lady who concentrates on flat tummies! You can also choose from four different background in which to train, mountain, gym, beach or park. I'm on the beach - somewhere sunny and relaxing (I wish). Your next option is choose you reason for training and what you want to work on in particular, be it loosing weight, getting fit, loosing the tummy, etc. You are asked to select your current level of fitness and after all this it will select an exercise programme for you.

When you start the exercises it starts you off easy and each of the seperate exercises - lunges, marching, press-ups, etc - have a low rep count but as you use it more the reps go up and harder and harder exercises start finding thier way into your daily work out. I have noticed my tummy getting flatter and my body aching more so it must be working. If you are disappointed with the 'gamey' nature of the Wii fit and want a serious workout the like of which you only get from a real gym, this is the game for you.

The only downside that I can see to this programme is that it doesn't plot your weight loss on a nice little graph like the Wii fit, it just tells you what you are from day to day. And although it says it compatible with the Wii balance board, sometimes it doesn't register that I'm using it and thinks I'm sitting down having a nice cup of tea instead of doing 12 three point press ups.

Other functions on the game are nutrition where it will tell you what food you are supposed to be eating and give you lots of recipes to try out - some of them are OK, some of them involves hours of preparation - not very practical. There's a challenge area where you can choose from activities such as Dance, Cardio Test and Army (haven't tried that one!) and Express Workout for those who like a quick sweat before work, before going out in the evening or during their lunch hour.

After each workout you are awarded points, and a medal according to how hard you tried. After each exercise you are given a percentage to show your timing, effort, balance etc. If you do well the trainer grins at you and offers you a thumbs up. If you do badly she shakes her head in disappointment.

There is definately a new me emerging from the Christmas binge - have a go - there's a New U in there somewhere too!

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a great alternative to an exercise DVD

I got a Wii for Christmas and this game with it, so this is one of the first 'games' I got to play on it. I put off playing it for a few days as I didn't want to be exercising on Christmas day, but when I did get around to putting this on I was pleasantly surprised about what you can do on it.

STARTING UPWhen first starting to use this you have to enter certain information about yourself. You create a profile for yourself giving your name, age and weight. If you have a balance board you can use that to weigh you, but as I don't I couldn't use that option. You also chose a trainer who will perform the exercises you'll be following and a setting. There's four different trainers, two men and two women, and four setting, a beach, snowy mountains, a forest and a gym. You then get to chose two aims you wish to achieve with your workout. There are a lot of different options. You can focus on looking good, dropping a dress size, flexibility, yoga, losing weight for certain occasions or getting fir for certain sports. You also say whether you do any exercise already, often, occasionally or never. You also enter which foods you eat and let it know if you don't eat certain meats, dairy, or have a gluten free diet. After this you're ready to start exercising!

EXERCISEThe exercise part of this is so simple and easy to use. You go to your daily exercises, and you can also preview what you will be doing tomorrow. When you start exercising all the markers at the top of the screen are explained to you. There is a bar so you can follow the timing of your movements, numbers telling you how many you have done, how many the trainer has done, and how many are left to do. There is also a circle which shows green if you are doing the exercise right and turns to red when it doesn't. The exercises start and end with a couple of beeps, which i think is really good as with some things, like the yoga for wii which I also have, you are not told when to sit up from some movements, which is really annoying. Before you have done an for the first time there is a preview of how it should be done. It also shows you what muscles you'll be working on which i think is really good. After each exercise it tells you how good you've done, whether you kept your balance, your timing was right, etc.

The exercises are really easy to follow. Some of them, such as the yoga moves, are a bit hard to get at first, but as you're shown what to do before starting it is much easier. I said that i didn't exercise at all, so the exercises i was given at first were pretty easy, there's not too many repetitions. I exercise for about 10-15 minutes and it's just enough for my muscles to ache a bit, but not so much I'm uncomfortable afterwards, and I sweat a little. To start with my goals were looking good and losing weight, so the exercises I was given were toning ones and some cardiovascular. I think it's good that you can focus on one thing but personally I wanted more variety than that. I started by getting 8 exercises to do a day, and after 3 weeks that has gone up to 9, which isn't much. So I have had to create a second account so i can focus on yoga and flexibility, which i get completely different exercises for. It is clearly good that they really do give you exercises for what you want to do, and making another account wasn't too much of a hassle. I think i am going to have to make another one too so i can do some more cardiovascular exercise as I don't think there's quite enough for me at the moment.

If you look on 'my progress' you can see how much exercise you have done so far and how much of your two goals you have been working on. This is a good way to see how much you've done and i assume that the more you do the faster your exercise regime gets harder. I think one problem with this is that you can't say if the exercises are too easy for you, or if you're not getting enough. However, as well as your daily exercise it does give you one for breakfast, lunch, and tea, which are a bit shorter. I just add one of theses to my daily exercise. You hold your wii remote whilst doing the exercises and it sometimes doesn't pick up on you doing the moves which is really annoying, if you don't do the exercise it doesn't get added on to our exercise total, and then your exercises wont be increased.

EXTRASAlong with the breakfast, lunch and tea exercises there is also a recipe for a meal you can have at this time, which is why you put in what you eat when you make your profile. These are put together by the people from 'you are what you eat'. They do seem very healthy and nice but I've not made any, they have a lot of ingredients and for someone who can't cook at all they just seem impossible! There are 5 challenges you can do, including dance, army, boxing, cardio and football. I've only done the dancing one, and there certainly wasn't any dancing involved! There was still exercises, I assume which would be suitable for dancers. This was really so hard, i could hardly move the next day, I wont be attempting another challenge any time soon!

OVERALLI think this is a very good way to exercise. I prefer it to exercise DVDs and it is more interactive and you can tailor it to you needs. It builds up your routine so you wont find yourself doing to much at once and it is easy to see how much you have done already. If you want to do more than has been set out for you, you can create another profile to concentrate on another goal or you can just do more repetitions of your daily exercise. There are a few bugs with this, it drives me mad when it doesn't pick up me doing the moves, or says I've not put in enough effort when i seem to be giving more than the trainer I'm following! But these aren't major fall backs, this is totally worth buying and will be a great exercise tool, especially for people who don't exercise or want to concentrate on something specific. It will also fill the gaps in the DVD market as it can help out people who want to train for sports like tennis, or who want to lose weight quickly for a party. The graphics are pretty good but not overly complex as it doesn't take too long to load anything. I'd definitely recommend this to people I know as it's so easy to use and is getting pretty addictive for me now. A great start to my new years diet!

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Another way to get you out of that armchair

I bought my Wii Fit when it first came on to the market but after a while using it becomes quite frustrating and tedious so I have advanced to other programmes using the Wii in order to improve my fitness. When I saw that Fitness First were brining out a Wii Fitness programme I just had to give it a try.

I placed and advance order with Amazon for the game and now I am pleased to say it has arrived.

Out of the Box

I have never really been known for my patience so it wasn't too long after the postman had delivered it before I had opened the case and put the disc into the console. I was very pleased to see that it was simplicity itself to get started (no need to read the instructions at this stage!). I had to enter my name and basic details to set up my profile and it used the Wii Balance Board to check my weight. I selected my 'personal trainer' from the four that they offered (two men and two women), chose a location for the workout, again there were four on offer and told them what I was seeking to achieve and my basic level of fitness.

Then I selected a daily workout and I was ready to go. Very helpfully they provide you with a quick listing of all the exercises you will be doing on the workout and as you work through them there are little tutorials so that you can see what is expected. You can click the A button to skip through these quickly which is helpful as I hated the time spent on Wii Fit running through stuff I already knew.

The first thing that struck me was that the graphics are so much better than any of the other Wii fitness programmes I have used. The graphics of course only make it look better but it was good to see that they have moved on from the orginal. Also the voice of the trainer is quiet and encouraging and doesn't 'nag' you like some programmes.

In use

I have had it for only a few days and I must say it is pretty straightforward to use. Each day you select the 'workout' option and it gives you a short workout which takes about 5 or ten minutes to complete depending on whether you opt to use the tutorial feature to explain each exercise in detail. The exercises are fairly simple to follow so it shouldn't be a problem once you understand the basic moves.

The number of repetitions you are expected to do are clearly shown on the right hand side and as you work through the exercises if you are doing them properly then your button on the right hand side of the screen glows green. If you aren't doing it right it glows orange and it shows red if you aren't doing it at all. At least that is what is supposed to happen - I have found that there are times when I am using the Wii Balance Board when it doesn't appear to register at all. That is extremely frustrating when I am putting in the effort and nothing is being recorded. This is especially so when you are stepping sideways on to the balance board. It could be that I am doing something wrong but so far I haven't figured out what the issue is!

At the end of the exercise you are marked on effort, and co-ordination as well as for completing all the repetitions and you are awarded medals for your performance.

The diet feature

This programme uses the Wii Balance Board to weigh you each time you use it ahead of doing the exercises and then it keeps track of you BMI based on the data you input at the start. If you are trying to lose weight the prgramme offers a daily diet with two menu choices for each meal of the day and a helpful shopping list to make sure you get all the right food in advance. You choose at the start the foods you will eat so if you are vegetarian it should be able to suggest a diet for you, similarly if you suffer allergies you can exclude foods.

This isn't an option I actually used because I am really happy following the DASH diet principles and my weight isn't a problem now that I follow that regime. However if you are trying to lose weight and get fitter it is a useful feature.

Would I recommend it?

Well at a cost of around £25 this isn't a cheap programme but it does offer some variety over the other Wii fitness programmes. So far it hasn't really stretched me so I am beginning to think I should have set my fitness level higher at the outset as I chose the middle level. If you are a bit of a couch potato looking for something to give you a gradual introduction to exercise this could be just what you need - work out in the comfort of your own home and gradually build up your fitness and lose weight.

I do like the fact that that the workouts are short so that means that I can do two or three according to the time I have available. The workouts don't feel too strenuous whilst I am doing them but afterwards I do notice that I have stretched out my body and my flexibilty is being maintained.

Overall it is an interesting package with better graphics than many of its competitors and the diet feature might prove useful for some people but for me I think My Fitness Coach and/or Sports Active for the Wii give me a more challenging workout so are better value for money. Also I am getting really frustrated about the problems getting the Wii Balance Board recognised in some of the exercises.

Worth thinking about as it is certainly more interesting than an exercise DVD and the workouts are varied each day.